A Bump in the Night
by Jelly Bean Omelette
Summary: The war's been over for ten years. Percy's settled in his teaching job and Annabeth's architectural company is wildly successful. They have one child and another soon on the way. But after a picture is published in Olympus Weekly Annabeth's cabin mates start disappearing and it appears that an old foe might be back to haunt them. NOT AU.
1. Chapter 1

**A Bump in the Night**

**Summary**

The war's been over for ten years. Percy's settled in his teaching job and Annabeth's architectural company is wildly successful. They have one child and another soon on the way. But after a picture is published in Olympus Weekly Annabeth's cabin mates start disappearing and it appears that an old foe is back to haunt them.

**A.N. **

**This story might be a novel but I'll probably keep it to a lengthy novella. It's written from Percy's POV…I might do some swapping later on but probably not. And the moment Percy and Annabeth are in their late twenties and they currently have one daughter named Ariadne (Addy). **

** P.S. If you don't remember Kayla, she's a daughter of Apollo that was in, like, one sentence in PJatLO.**

**Chapter 1**

The playground of Primrose Primary was occupied solely by the super-moms (or mom-sters as Annabeth liked to call them). They stood, carrying their chilled coffee drinks, in tightly-knit circles so I stood awkwardly away from them, hovering at the gate waiting for the bell to ring.

'Hello, Percy.' Kayla tapped me on the shoulder and I turned round to face her. She looked frazzled and worn out; there were distinct bags under her eyes. It wasn't surprising considering Malcolm had been in Amsterdam for the past two weeks with Annabeth (finalizing the designs for some museum they were building) and had left her alone with their nine year-old, Michael, and the triplets; Margaret, Harriett and Cassidy).

'Hey, Kayla. How you holding up?'

She grimaced. 'How do you think?' I laughed, 'I'm just thankful that Mal's flying in tonight. But Perce…the thing is…Nancy was supposed to be watching the triplets but she's jetted off to _Australia _on some photography job for National Geographic and Mal and I are taking Michael to camp for the first time. So could you _please _pick Mal up from the airport and then keep Peggy, Hattie and Cass at yours tonight?'

Kayla's big, blue Apollo-eyes eyes grew to the size of saucers and her lips formed a small pout. I sighed. That night was supposed to be the first time Annabeth, Addy and I had spent any time together since Addy's sixth birthday last month—Annabeth had been working overseas non-stop since then.

I groaned, 'Fine!'

Kayla grinned, 'Thankyouthankthankyou!' she squealed and jumped up and down on the tarmac. She stopped looking like the worn mother of four and suddenly looked much more like the fourteen year-old who had played bass in the Apollo cabin's band.

'But tell Mal that you guys owe me big time…I'm talking school-run every day for the next month!' I said loudly over her thank-yous.

Before either one of us even realised the bell had rung the playground was suddenly filled with small, hyper-active children and Kayla was swept away by the sheer force of her personal three identical menaces.

'Thanks again, Percy!' She yelled after me before Peggy, Hattie and Cass dragged her out the gates.

'Daddy!'

Addy, my six year old daughter ran towards me and I scooped her up into my arms. 'Hey, sweetie. I missed you today; how was school?' I kissed her on the cheek but she wrinkled her nose and tried to swat me away.

'Ewww…gross, Dad.' Addy furiously rubbed her cheek where my lips had been. 'School was good. I got twenty out of twenty on my spelling test.' She grinned and tiny little dimples appeared in her cheeks.

Addy was so much like Annabeth in her nature—kind, almost as stubborn as I was, and a real smartie-pants. But as far as looks went, she took after me. Although she had Annabeths curls her hair was my black and her eyes were a spitting image of mine. It's like she took the best features of both of us to make this perfect little ball of amazing-ness.

Annabeth had her multi-billion dollar company and I saved the world. But we both knew the best thing either of us ever created were our kids.

After trying (and failing) to make Addy dinner I ordered us in some Chinese and waited for Jesse—the kid downstairs who baby sits for us.

Honestly, I had never really liked Jesse. He always seemed like the kind of kid who had always picked on me at school (in other words; he was super cool and had abs). But Annabeth really liked him because he studied Classics at nyu (Who makes a career out of Classics?) and was willing to watch _My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic _with Addy for hours on end. Plus he lived just downstairs and was almost always available during school holidays.

'So, I'll be back from the airport in about two hours, give or take.' I said and Jesse nodded, 'Remember; Addy has some Math homework and she'll tell you that it's not due tomorrow but make sure that she does it before any tv .'

Jesse rolls his eyes in the classic, petulant 'I know.'... I'm not an idiot' way and I found it hard not to scowl.

'And if she gets hungry give her a snack from the kitchen but check that it has no nuts. Even a trace is a huge no. Her EpiPen and piriton are on the table as well as all the numbers you'll need; mine and Annabeth's cells, Annabeth's work cell and my mum's place is there as well. Any problems?'

'No, Mr Jackson. I think I got everything.'

I looked over at Addy who was standing in our little kitchenette, creasing her eyebrows (she looked so much like Annabeth when she did that) and trying to open a jam jar. I laughed a little. 'I'll see you in an hour, okay sweetie?'

'Yeah, 'kay Dad.' She waved me off. I sometimes worried that Addy was growing up way too fast. She was only seven and already acting how I did when I was eleven. But then wasn't really the time to worry about whether my baby girl was still my _baby_ girl or not.

'Don't forget to do you homework! See you, sweetie.'

I locked the door behind Addy and Jesse and left to pick up Annabeth and Malcolm from the airport.

Generally Annabeth flew into jfk so it'd only take me about 10 minutes to go pick her up. But because she booked the flight at the last minute the closest she could get to home was Somerset—a good forty minute drive away.

The drive there was relatively boring—I got stuck in traffic, stopped for gas and coffee, listened to some ac/dc and got stuck in more traffic. But at the airport was where things started to go wrong.

I met Annabeth at baggage reclaim and as soon as I saw her I knew she was not in a good mood.

'Hey, Perce.' Annabeth sighed. Her shoulders were slumped, there were dark, purple marks around her eyes, her usual blonde princess-curls were tangled into a horrendous mess, her jeans were wrinkled and there was a small stain on the collar of her orange blazer.

I wondered if I should've called my mum and asked her to watch Addy and the triplets that night because Annabeth looked like she really needed a long nap.

'Hey, Annabeth. And hey Owen Jackson.' I knelt down to kiss her slightly distended stomach.

Annabeth gave me a stern look and replied, 'Or Orla; not necessarily Owen yet.' Annabeth has her sixteen-week appointment next month and were supposed to find out the sex of the baby then.

Until that date comes Annabeth and I have been in constant dispute—she thinks it's a girl and I think it's a boy. (I'm really just hoping it's a boy because ever since Annabeth built a dam in Ireland last year she's been obsessed with Irish names…and I really hate Orla, I just don't want to argue with a pregnant, hormonal wife.)

She only gave me a one-armed hug, despite the fact that her laptop bag wasn't even swung over her shoulder. 'Where's your laptop?' I asked as we began to move closer to the carousel that was starting to carry the very first bags.

Annabeth groaned and rubbed her temples. 'So we were about to do the presentation on the design changes—we were only really just telling the engineers about the tweaks in the basement wiring. So I left my laptop in the conference room and five minutes later when I come back from Starbucks it's gone!'

She gesticulated wildly with her arms as she grumbled and several people turned round to give us weird looks. Annabeth just completely ignored them. 'So, anyway; Malcolm had paper copies of the blueprints so the meeting went fine. But now I've to get a new laptop and recreate _all _my files.'

She sniffed and sat down on the edge of the carousel , just off the moving part. A security guard eyed her and started towards us but Annabeth noticed and glared at him with her hard—as—stone grey eyes. He quickly scurried off in the opposite direction, still trying to look casual about it.

'And on top of it all I have a cold!'

I knew it probably made me an awful husband, but the pitiful, melodramatic and un-Annabeth way in which Annabeth spoke made me want to laugh so hard. 'Aw, I'm sorry Honey. So where's Malcolm?' I scanned the swarm of people that was still surging out of the gate for that familiar tuft of white-blond hair

Annabeth's head snapped up and her eyes-brows creased, 'Malcolm?'

'Yeah, Malcolm…you know, yay high,' I held my hand only about 5 and a half feet off the ground and grinned, 'really blonde hair. I think you know him?'

'Percy, I'm being serious,' the grinned immediately slipped of my face, 'Malcolm came home, like, yesterday.'

'What?'

'Yeah, I let him go home early so he could help Michael pack for camp. His flight got in yesterday at around midday. He was going to call Kayla when he got into the city and surprise her.'

'Kayla hasn't heard from him…she thought he was coming in today. I'm supposed to pick him up now, Annabeth. What do I tell Kayla? I can't just say "Oops, I lost your husband, lol"'

Annabeth's eyes slowly start to light up with panic as her mind wakes up. I can practically see the little wheels turning in her brain, mentally running every possible scenario. Clearly she came to a conclusion because suddenly she jumped up and grabbed my hand, pulling me quickly to the departure gate.

'Wait, Annabeth? What about your bag?' I say, looking back at the carousel.

'Leave it. We've got to get back to Manhattan now!'


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

Annabeth was on her phone the entire way back to Manhattan. It seemed like she was attempting to call everyone either one of us had ever known. She called Grover in New York, Jason and Piper in LA, Frank and Hazel in New Rome, Leo in old Rome, almost all of her siblings that were currently living in America, my mom, her dad and she even managed to somehow get hold of Thalia and the hunters down in Canada.  
Not a single one of them had heard from Malcolm since Annabeth had driven him to the airport in Amsterdam a day ago.  
Annabeth was in a serious manic-panic mode. I had only ever seen her like this before when she briefly lost Daedalus' laptop at the Athena cabin reunion last month. Except that this time was worse…way worse.  
The drive should've taken us forty minutes. Instead, under Annabeth's rapid instruction, I ran every stop sign, traffic light and blatantly disregarded any and all speed limits. We arrived back at our apartment block in a quarter of an hour.  
I pulled into the parking lot below our place and before I had even put the car into park Annabeth was out of the car and running towards the elevator. I locked our SUV and sprinted after Annabeth, only just making it through the doors before they closed behind me.  
'Perce?' Annabeth's voice startled me. She hadn't said anything to me apart from 'step on it' since she found out Malcolm was missing.  
'Yeah?'  
'I'm worried about Malcolm.' Tears—that I knew she had been holding back sine the airport—welled up in her eyes.  
The elevator started to move agonizingly slowly. I pulled Annabeth into a hug but the warmth and comfort usually accompanied by that movement was gone. Her head still fit snugly under my chin but she was cold and shaking. Tears rolled off her cheeks onto my t-shirt as she sobbed silently.  
Normally Annabeth wouldn't have gotten worked up so easily but the exhaustion from jet lag and not having seen Addy nor me in the past two weeks must have taken its toll on her.  
'I know, Sweetie. We'll find him. I promise.' I say as the elevator draws to a stop and the doors open.  
We walked in silence down the corridor towards our apartment. Usually Annabeth would have been excited at the prospect of seeing her daughter again, but under the circumstances, not so much.  
'When we get in can you grab some drachmas from our bedroom, I want to IM Chiron at camp,' said Annabeth as we approached the door.  
I jiggled the key in the lock and opened the door. The muted TV was playing My Little Pony (no surprise there) and Addy was lying, asleep with a blanket thrown over her, on the couch and Jesse was sat on the floor surrounded by a multitude of Latin, Greek and . text books. As soon as Annabeth and I walked in he stood up.  
'Sorry,' he whispered, 'She fell asleep around half an hour ago and I didn't want to wake her.'  
'That's fine,' Annabeth replied. 'Percy and I actually have a matter to attend to.' She choked on the word 'matter' and Jesse, noticing her red eyes, started to look very awkward. 'Would you mind staying for another hour or two?'  
'I don't know… I've got to drive to Vermont pretty early tomorrow.'  
I casually snuck past Jesse and Annabeth towards the bedroom as they haggled over pay in whispers.  
'We'll pay you double your hourly.'  
Annabeth's voice faded as I shut the bedroom door behind me.  
I opened our wardrobe and felt around for the latches hidden under a stack of shoe boxes on the floor. Finding them, I lifted away the false bottom.  
I surveyed the weapons and other demigod-esque items—nectar, ambrosia, a couple of spare swords and a spear, spare armour and Annabeth's personal Empire State 600th floor key card. The only things that we didn't hide in there were Riptide and Annabeth's knife and cap as we kept them on us at all times.  
I grabbed a pouch of drachmas, replaced the false bottom and headed back out.  
It seemed silly that we had hid this from Addy, considering that she already knew about the whole 'Greek and Roman gods' thing. But she was only seven (Annabeth and I tactfully ignored the fact the she went to camp when she was only seven) and we weren't quite ready for Addy to know exactly how much danger she was in.  
Jesse was back sitting on the floor scribbling Greek translations in the margin of his textbook and I resisted the urge to point out the two plurals he missed. Annabeth gave Addy a quick kiss on the forehead—she stirred in her sleep, but did not wake.  
'You ready to go?' I asked and Annabeth nodded in reply. I locked the door behind us and we rode the elevator silently down to ground floor.  
To the back of the lobby there was a set of double doors leading to a little garden and patio. It was mostly used by Mrs. Pettifeather—the woman who lived across the hall—for her gardening addiction. Fortunately, the hose she used had a mist setting on it and she had UV lights installed in the green house.  
'Oh Iris, goddess of the rainbow, accept my offering.' Annabeth spoke, while I held the hose. 'Show me Chiron, activities director at Camp Half-Blood.'  
The water droplets drew together and flickered different colours to show and image—Chiron was standing behind the ring of young demigods who were singing around the campfire.  
'Chiron, Chiron. Chiron!' Annabeth yelled.  
Chiron finally turned around, 'Ah, Annabeth, and is that Percy's arm I see? It's good to see you again.' He yelled over the chaos of campfire songs, he then noticed the pained expression on Annabeth's face, 'Or perhaps not… maybe we should take this elsewhere.'  
Chiron started to trot away from amphitheatre and the misty image followed him. When he was close to the Big House and the noise had faded he stopped and turned back to face us. 'What's the problem?'  
Annabeth swallowed. 'Malcolm, he… he's missing. I was wondering if you had heard from him at all.'  
'Malcolm? No, sorry. But he and Kayla will be here tonight to drop off Michael if you want to speak to him then.' Chiron swung his tail nervously. He knew from Annabeth's expression that that wasn't true. He was just still hoping that maybe, after all we had been through, his old campers could have their happily-ever-after.  
'Ok, Chiron…maybe I'll IM you again then. Bye.'  
Annabeth stepped away from the image. I muttered, 'Bye Chiron,' and shut off the hose.  
I turned around, expecting to find Annabeth in varying degrees of panic. But instead she was marching out with her 'serious business' walk like it was Armageddon hour.  
'Annabeth, wait, where are you going?' I chased after her but she carried on towards to stairwell.  
'We're going to JFK. I want to check their surveillance for any sign of Malcolm.' She marched down the stairs and out into the parking lot.  
I tried not to trip following her. 'Annabeth, wait! Let's talk about this first, shall we? Make some more calls…this wouldn't be the first time Malcolm's gone missing. He's a loose canon; probably passed out in some bar somewhere or touring museums in London. I'm sure he'll be back in a matter if days.' Annabeth knew that wasn't true and so did I. I was grasping at straws.  
'Make some calls?' Annabeth spat, 'I've called almost everyone we know—'  
A cool voice that, for once, I was glad to hear spoke from across the parking lot. 'Clearly you didn't call absolutely everyone.' Clarisse was dressed in her navy-blue NYPD uniform and leant casually against the boot of her police car.  
'Clarisse.' Annabeth narrowed her eyes. I guess you could say that she and Clarisse were on good terms. It was just they were generally on better terms when they weren't any where near each other. I almost expected her to tell Clarisse to go to the crows but she said, through gritted teeth, 'What are you doing here?'  
Clarisse smiled a grim, sad smile. 'I think you now what I'm doing here. You are the smart one after all.'  
'Hey, whatever genius, mind conversation you two are having I am not following.' I looked to my wife to explain, as I had to do with most things (it really did get embarrassing at times).  
'Malcolm's either lying in an alley with crime scene tape surrounding his body. Or he's on a slab at the city morgue.' She explained it calmly as if we were back in high school and she were tutoring me on trigonometry.  
My brain went through the three stages of melting. First it heated to boiling temperatures then it started to liquefy and then my brain exploded. Annabeth Julie Chase, the woman who on our wedding day threatened a six year-old flower girl with disembowelment because she lost the veil, was standing here calmly discussing the death of her elder brother.  
'Wait, huh? Malcolm can't be dead! I just spoke to Kayla, they're dropping Michael off at camp...'  
And as Annabeth jumped back into our car, ordering an unimpressed Clarisse to lead the way to the crime scene I realised that Annabeth wasn't not caring. The order of events would be Nancy Drew, kill Malcolm's murderer and them go ape-shit mental. (And somewhere along the way somebody would have to tell Kayla and his four children.)


End file.
